I hope everyone has noticed the club's innovative thinking on this one: * all match ticket holders from the Sunderland game can get a £5 discount for one future home match. Make it Arsenal please guys! Perhaps the Mackems will pop down? * online booking is now cheaper than phoning for a ticket. There are NO Booking Fees, these have been removed to encourage online sales * no "ticket history" is required to purchase a home ticket for this or any other game this season except Liverpool. Get an Arsenal ticket and get on the database for Liverpool. You know it makes sense.

Bring on the Arse.........BIG, BIG game

Sure is

Bugger can't go I'll be in Nice

Just as an aside Wigan have sold 23000 of their 27000 allocation for Cardiff. Good going I'd say.

Try asking at the Customer Services desk for DVD's - I have a feeling they are a club item whereas the rest of the shop stock is from SWI. This was certainly the case for the Tony Parkes DVD. The CS desk is run by the club not by SWI. Also all ST holders got a DVD of last season I may have a spare, I'll look around the house.

This link, at the bottom of The Guardian article, is fun in iself - http://www.nufc-finances.org.uk/

JW has been saying this for a while now. It makes sense to me and I can't see what else the club can do. I was struck by the proportion of non-white (I've no idea about their ethnicity) fans at WBA on Saturday. Those I spoke to hada broad brummy accent so I'd guess where third generation.

I did consider this on the way home...........decided it was Ricky's fault in the end.

MGP, Reid, Bentley, Pongolle, Emerton, Peter, Mokoena Nelsen - when I was 27, 30 looked a long way off

As for the game? Not as bad as people are making out, much of what has been said is probably born out of frustration. WBA did not look as poor as their position suggests and I don't think they will go down. The bottom four lost so this was a crucial win for the baggies. First half we were average to poor, not much was working for us and with 2-3 players, notably Tugay, in poor form it was tough for the rest of the team to get going. Second half we played far better but to be honest lacked any real cutting edge. Defensively I thought we were OK, Gray and Nelsen both had good games, especially Nelsen who made excellent interceptions and tackles in the second half. Neil looked dodgy at moments in the first half but settled down after twenty minutes or so. Todd was OK, not outstanding but did little wrong. Tugay was very poor, perhaps one of his worst 45 minutes for us. Judged on this game you'd have to wonder if he'll get a new deal in the summer. Reid had a poor second half after Tugs went off, far too many side-ways passes and caught with the ball 5-6 times. MGP did little but popped in some good crosses when he had the ball, which is what I've come to expect from him of late. Disappointed we lost but that's football, the performance was not as bas as many have made out. The biggest disappointment being the confidence which flowed through the whole side on Wednesday just wasn't there on Saturday. Why? I do like looking around our team and being struck by how young they are.

Now that's interesting. It's rare for us to go away but boosted by Wednesday and in need of more footie (that's what a good win does for you) we decided at the last moment to set off for The Hawthorns. This morning I've e-mailed WBA to complain about the match-day experience. I appreciate what the announcer was trying to do; I applaud his efforts and the principle behind it, BUT it was unbelievably loud. I sat with Ricky and Linda, behind us was Neil, all people I would liked to have talked with but the noise levels from the tannoy were such that any conversation below shouting level was impossible. So for intent WBA get 9/10, for implementation they get 1/10. I won't be going back to WBA unless the match is absolutely crucial simply because of the tannoy. Silly? Maybe but it made a big difference to my day out. Aplogies to anyone I ignored, I couldn't hear a frigging thing. Secondly, my son is disabled, walking a distance can be a slow and painful process for Tom. We parked near the BP garage on the motorway side, just a good distance for Tom. Leaving the ground the stewards refused to allow us to turn right through the gates. We had to follow everyone else making the walk 45 minutes instead of the 10 it was to get in. As Tom gets tired he just gets slower and slower! I know the reasoning but a 50+, disabled lad and flask are hardly a threat to the local casuals! So our match-day experience at The Hawtorns was poor and if I was a casual Midlands based fan it wouldn't be top of my list. Nice little ground though

Me and our Tom....first ever visit to The Hawthorns

It's been suggested a "Memory Lane" topic might be fun. The idea being for people to recall their memories of great Rovers games. Games stick in the mind for all sorts of reasons, the team performance, a special goal, the atmosphere, etc. After a brief discussion we felt a seperate forum would be best as individual topics would get lost on the main board. Please try to keep each topic to a specific game, and check if the match you want to discuss has already been posted before starting a new topic. Just to give members an idea of the sort of games we had in mind: Rovers 4 Derby 2 West Ham home 5-4 Cardiff Worthington Cup Gencerbilli ? away Spelling Utd 4-3 Utd 2-0 Easter '93? - Shearer got both FMC Final Leicester City play-offs VE Night Anfield 95 Rovers 4 City 1, the day of Hillsborough - City were champions and we thumped them Lot of contrasting emotions West Ham 2 Rovers 8 Rovers 7 Spurs 2 Rovers 5 Arsenal 5

Thanks Flopsy I just need a weekend pass now

For some reason I can't get on the official site. Can someone post the ticket prices - adult and junior - I'm thinking about going. Never been to WBA and after Wednesday I need another fix.....quick! What's the parking like in the area?

The mail order and SWI are to different entities. According to the shop manager the mail order side is not even owned by SWI. That info is some months old. Ricky, if you let me know what you want I can pop into the shop over the weekend and check the stock and price. If you want one posting to home, let me know. PM your mobile and I'll text you when I've been in. Send me the lad's age and t-shirt size. Anyhting to help convert a Chelsea fan...............

Found myself sat next to a Manc in the family stand last night! If anything could have made the night sweeter it was that. He started of with some clapping and cheering for them and started to get a bit gobby in the first half; by 3-1 he was sat looking at the floor - have to confess to laughing as hard and loud as I could. At 4-1 I was almost helpless with laughter. That'll teach him to try and sneak in the home area!

There were some in stock last weekend

Dear Mr Fergusson, Given the choice would you take six points or the Carling Cup Final?

To be honest an away game might be a better intro than Ewood at the moment. Better atmosphere, singing etc. Don't go in the home areas. There is nothing more miserable than not being able to support your team and sitting on your hands. Make sure you buy him a programme, scarf etc on the walk to the ground. Great preview Colin, top marks to you and Adrian Chiles.

Yes. We've had one meeting to discuss this with the club and another is scheduled for ten days or so.

An outstanding post from AESF and one with I fully agree. We often read of the "ordinary" fan being priced out of the game. At OT on Wednesday night I wondered how true this is. My thoughts are based purely on observing the Utd fans milling around before the game and, mainly, the huge number we shouldered our way through after the game. We were amongst the last Rovers to leave the ground and found ourselves surrounded by Utd fans outside the East stand and back to car parks. Many of these fans looked like ordindary working people to me. Very few suits and smart overcoats but many people dressed in sweats, tracksuits, team shirts, hoodies etc, So just how true is that the ordinary fan has been priced out? Did the fact the tickets were on open sale mean many local Utd fans attended who normally would not?

19, I think

13,326 at Bolton last night for a fourth round tie with Arsenal. I suspect Rovers probably wouldn't have done much better. How much longer is it going to take the powers that be to realise over-exposure is ruining attendances? I had planned to watch this match, to some extent I was put off by the swathes of empty seats, the Arsenal reserves plus Bolton were missing six? I believe the Reebok attendance is clear demonstration of the disastrous impact Sky money (yes I know it was on the Beeb) has had on our game: Presumably fans watched on TV 5.45pm on a cold Saturday is hardly encouraging the walk-ups Arsenal field the reserves - Wenger is clearly concentrating on Real Madrid and the Champions League (more money) Bolton can't afford UK, or even European, players so half their team is in the African nations cup Sky money is responsible for the ridiculous price of quality players Sky money is responsible for the obscene wages paid to these players I've been thinking for a while one solution could be to limit the number of games on TV dramatically. No more Sky games Saturday to Tuesday. Allow Sky to pick one major fixture to broadcast on a Saturday afternoon, even a 3.00pm kick-off. Even allow them to make the decision the previous weekend; let the rest of us get back to watching football at 3.00 on a Saturday. This won't have an impact on gates as they are falling already Attendances next season are going to plummet and the only reason is too much football on TV. The only real solution to a mounting crisis is to restrict the product availability.